


The 8001 Nights

by GretchenSinister



Series: GretchenSinister's Second Blacksand Week [3]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: 1001 Nights fusion, 8000 Blacksand AUs, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23113066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Ahhh I’m so late and everyone’s probably asleep by nowBut here is my AU day contribution anyway.
Relationships: Pitch Black/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Series: GretchenSinister's Second Blacksand Week [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660444
Kudos: 1
Collections: Blacksand Short Fics





	The 8001 Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 11/13/2013.

The Sultan of the Shadows had reigned a thousand years, and he would reign a thousand more. The people of the stars were accustomed to their sultans living such long lives, far longer than their own, but they sorrowed under the rule of the one who now sat in the celestial throne. For in all their history, all their sultans had been Sultans of Light.

History recorded that the one now ruling had once been a Sultan of Light, too, yet it did not record why he had become a Sultan of Shadow. When the transformation was talked of at all, it was mentioned only obliquely, as ‘a great tragedy.’ Some dared to say that he had been burned by a falling star.

But this was but feeble explanation for his nightly atrocities.

For long, long centuries, every night, the Sultan of Shadow would go into the City of the Firmament and choose a young star, in the prime of their life, the brighter the better, and take them back with him to the palace. Each night, he would wish on the star he had chosen, and if they could not grant his wish to his satisfaction, the star would be extinguished in the morning.

So long had he done this that the City of the Firmament, once a solid sheet of glowing gold when seen from far away, had become mostly dark, scattered with only a few points of light. Few stars wanted to become parents with the thought that their children, upon reaching maturity, might be sacrificed to the brutal wishes of the Sultan of Shadows.

Now, in the City of the Firmament, there lived a star named Sandy. Sandy lived with one of their parents, the other having been extinguished at Sandy’s birth. So precious was Sandy to their living parent, then, that from childhood they had been wrapped in thick, dimming clothes to keep them safe. Under such garments, Sandy had grown, unnoticed by the Sultan of Shadows, into the most beautiful star in the city.

Yet they were not merely beautiful. They were also wise and clever and good, and ever since their parent had explained to them the terrible nightly toll exacted by the sultan, they had grown more and more determined each day that they would put a stop to the horrible practice.

And so, one evening, as the Sultan of Shadows stepped outside the palace walls, surrounded by his guards, to begin his search for that night’s star, Sandy stepped from the shadows, throwing off their dimming clothes, and stood bright before the sultan.

“I will be your star tonight,” they said, and, seeing them, the sultan had no wish to refuse such an offer.

* * *

In the palace, Sandy was a little worried to find themselves being led to the sultan’s own chambers. What did the sultan wish that could only be done there—that no star yet could do? Kept away from the world until now, they were little versed in that branch of knowledge.

When the Sultan of Shadows turned to Sandy, however, all he said was, “I wish for you to relieve me of my sorrow.” He offered no more words, and Sandy’s mind spun. It was clear in the sultan’s somber expression and his strange skin that did not glow at all that he was indeed walking under some heavy burden of the heart. Yet what could Sandy do, not knowing what it was?

They knew they needed time. How to gain it? Sandy knew well what their preferred method of putting hours into lifetimes and lifetimes into hours was, and so they said, “Your majesty, I will tell you a story, and when I am done, you will tell me if your sorrow has been relieved.”

The sultan’s expression lightened just slightly then, and he settled back into a couch’s many pillows. Almost relaxed, Sandy thought he would be quite handsome if he smiled, if he started glowing again—and if such a transformation signaled the end of the extinguishing of stars.

“No star has ever offered me that,” he said. He gestured for Sandy to make themselves comfortable, “begin.”

For a moment, Sandy did not know where to start. The tale of the gentle warrior who healed his enemy and became his lover? The tale of the shipwrecked sailor and the mermaid? The tale of the magician and the writer? The tale of the translator and the foreigner from the most distant land? The tale of the wizards who could not touch? Tales of monsters and men, men and monsters? Sweet tales of birds? No, none of these were the tale they needed, none would give him enough time. They needed one that would contain all of these.

And with that thought they had their answer. “Long ago, long before the City of the Firmament was even a thought, when the universe was younger than I am now, there sprung from the roiling energy two beings, one light and one dark…”

**Author's Note:**

> Tags and Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> #no I don't know how the cosmology of this universe works
> 
> whentheoceanmetsky reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> omg Scheherazade and the One Thousand and One Nights is like one of my favorites im so happy rn like omg i may be bouncing on my bed a little #I LOVE FAIRY TALE RETELLINGS #AND DUMB BIRD REF OMG #CRIES A LITTLE #SMOOSHES FACE
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: niiiiiice.
> 
> xxdaimonxx said: you don’t even know how long I have been waiting for a 1001 arabian nights crossover dude, I love you


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